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Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany, has implemented a document providing for the blessing of same-sex couples, as well as couples that have remarried outside the Church.

“Priests who do not want to carry out such blessing celebrations for homosexual marriages or remarried divorced people must refer the couples to the dean or other staff,” according to the report in Catholic World Report.

The document that Cardinal Marx is implementing was adopted by the German Synodal Way in March 2023. Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s December 2023 declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, stated:

Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage ...

One should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation. At the same time, one should not prevent or prohibit the Church’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing.